


Virtue is its own reward

by Zauzat



Category: Cabin Pressure
Genre: M/M, Prompt Meme Fill
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-09-30
Updated: 2012-09-30
Packaged: 2017-11-15 09:14:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,396
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/525667
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zauzat/pseuds/Zauzat
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Written for this prompt: I'm as much a fan as anyone of poor Martin being evicted and sleeping in his van, and Carolyn ending up paying him out of pity and guilt. But it has become a bit of a cliche in the fandom. So before season 4 (hopefully) gets him paid, let's have all the different, funny, weird ways in which he might finally end up getting a salary.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Virtue is its own reward

"Douglas! A word, if you please."

"Gosh. A summons into the inner sanctum. And to what do I owe the honour?"

Douglas heaved himself out of the tatty sofa where he had been perusing a Daily Mail salvaged off yesterday's flight. Martin was ostentatiously studying his flight manuals and Arthur had been shut up by offering him Douglas's smartphone for a game of Angry Birds. It was yet another morning on stand-by.

"I want to know what you're up to," declared Carolyn as she closed the door of her little office behind them.

"You know me, Carolyn, always up to at least half a dozen things. What particular one do you have in mind on this fine morning?"

"I've had yet another booking come in for MJN, mentioning your name. That's the third one in the last ten days."

"Surely a source of delight? Yet anyone would think you were accusing me of something," declared Douglas with a raised eyebrow.

Carolyn regarded him with pursed lips and hands on her hips. "Don't play games with me, Mr Richardson, I know you far too well. You don't do favours for people without expecting a substantial return on your investment. In the last three months you've brought in nearly forty percent of our business. I've been expecting your demand daily for weeks now, but you've just let the favours pile up. Well, out with it! I've had enough of having your sword of Damocles handing over my head. What do you want?"

Douglas frowned at her. "I'd been expecting you to be rather happier about this turn of events. Aren't you glad to be earning more?"

"I think you're going to want a price that it will hurt me to pay," said Carolyn bluntly.

"Hurt you?" Douglas looked genuinely perplexed. "What on earth do you think I'm going to ask for?"

They stared warily at each other for a long moment, until Carolyn finally lost patience. "Oh, I don't have the time for your games. You're going to want to be captain, make me demote Martin or let him go."

"Well, thank you for your vote of confidence in what an utter bastard I am," snapped Douglas. "I won't add to the embarrassment of this by asking what your reply would have been. I don't want you to fire Martin. I want you to pay him."

"Pay _Martin_?" demanded Carolyn incredulously.

"Yes, _pay_ your captain. How is that so hard to grasp? You've got that contract from Mr Yachting Oligarch and the work I've brought in. I've even managed to get Martin to stop diverting every time a light on G-ERTIE so much as flickers. You have to be able to afford a salary for him now."

Carolyn regarded him with narrowed eyes. "Fine. I was going to start doing that anyway, once I'd worked out what your price was. But I still don't get it. What's in it for you?"

Douglas smirked at her. "Virtue is its own reward."

"Oh _really_? I've no doubt your virtue was a lost cause decades ago. Martin!" she called. "Come in here."

Martin stuck his head round the door tentatively, as if trying to gauge the atmosphere in the room before fully committing to entering. "Yes?"

"Here." Carolyn trust a piece of paper at him. "Give me your banking details and I'll put you on direct debit from next month, but for the moment, this is your first salary cheque. It's not much, mind, and it does depend on you not doing anything utterly idiotic with my aeroplane that will bankrupt us. Please avoid all mountains, American security staff and Tunisian airfield managers. Nevertheless, consider yourself paid."

Martin gaped at the cheque, before looking from Carolyn to Douglas and back with huge eyes. "But... what... why.... ummm.... I don't...."

"If you don't want it, I'm only too happy to have it back," said Carolyn tartly.

Martin promptly whipped the cheque behind his back. "No, I do, I really _really_ do, I just don't.... I can't.... Oh God, can I go and tell everyone on the airfield, Carl and Phil and--"

"Best not to," interrupted Douglas. "They think you've been paid all along. It won't boost your reputation to find out that you haven't."

"Oh." Martin visibly deflated, but only for a moment. Almost immediately the excitement began to build again. "But I want to... I need to...." He was almost bouncing in place now, hands fluttering with uncontrolled energy. "Douglas? This was you, wasn't it?"

Martin suddenly pounced on his first officer, throwing his arms around Douglas's neck, standing up on his tiptoes to mash his mouth against the other man's as if he wanted to climb inside and set up camp there. He had Douglas's shirt pulled out of his trousers, and his hand up the other man's back, before Carolyn had recovered her powers of speech.

"Gentlemen! _Gentlemen!_ A touching scene this may be, but that is _more_ than enough. Martin, get out, and go and slobber your delight all over Arthur. Douglas, you stay right here!"

Martin, after one last gaze of sickening adoration at Douglas, bounced out of the door with the cheque clutched to his chest.

"So... it might be more accurate to say that _Martin's_ virtue is your reward."

Douglas shrugged, looking smug. "Well, let's just say that a happy Martin is a horny Martin, and a horny Martin is a truly delightful creature."

"Too much information, Douglas. I do not wish to know. I'd thought I'd have to worry about you flouncing off to some other airline in search of a promotion. Instead I have to worry about one or other of you storming off after some epic fight."

"We're adults, Carolyn, it won't come to that."

"Adults is debatable. Nevertheless, I do like to know that I have each of you in a death-grip. Arthur there is no getting rid of, even if I wanted to. Martin, as a captain with a salary, is not going to get a better offer anyway else anytime soon. But what to do with you?"

Douglas looked puzzled. "I'm not going anywhere, now even more than before. I don't see what your problem is."

"And I don't see why not. I never expected your post-Air England funk to last this long but at some point you've got to decide you can do more with your life and talents."

"Why Carolyn, is that a compliment?"

"Take it for the very rare sighting that it is, and shut up and listen. I can't make you a captain, and even if I could afford to lease a second plane, I have to assume you and lover-boy will want to fly together. I'm tired of MJN's troubles but I can't afford to hire anyone else to help. So I have another idea. In addition to your duty as first officer, how would you feel about being CMO of a charter airline?"

"CMO?"

"Chief Marketing Officer. Use your connections and your gift for the gab for the greater good. I can't pay you any more right now but we can come up with some kind of scheme. Each so many pounds of profit you bring in, earns you a share of MJN up to, say, forty percent. I lose control of the company over my dead body but I'm prepared to share. All you have to do is make sure your schemes are more or less legal."

"You're serious?"

"God help me but yes, I am. Are you interested?"

A slow grin began to spread across Douglas's face. "God help both of us, but I rather think I might be. That really would be quite the challenge." He stared unseeing into space for a moment, considering the idea. "Tell you what, why don't we both go away and think about it for a few hours, and then maybe sit down this afternoon to hash out details. I've got something I rather urgently need to do."

Carolyn regarded him with narrowed eyes. "Oh you do, do you? Would this have anything to do with my other useless pilot?"

"Well, let's just hope the client doesn't want to fly in the next few hours. We may be a little.... _occupied_." He winked at her as he opened the door. "A happy Douglas is a horny Douglas. Now, where has my young captain got to?"


End file.
